Hughes on keeper hunt

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is scouring the transfer market for a goalkeeper after being given permission by the Premier League to recruit a temporary replacement for the injured Joe Hart.

PUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: 13:16, Thu, Nov 20, 2008

Mark Hughes

An upbeat medical report means Hart is only likely to be out of action for around a fortnight, but with third-choice keeper Richard Martin also injured, the only back-up Hughes has for Kasper Schmeichel going into games against Arsenal, Schalke 04 in the UEFA Cup and Manchester United would be 18-year-old Norwegian Tobias Johansen.

"We have been given permission to bring in a goalkeeper on loan so we'll see what's out there," said Hughes. "It would be just a short-term situation to cover us for a couple of games. We'll see who's available and see if it's worthwhile bringing anybody in."

With City stuttering in the Premier League, Hughes is keen to add some experienced back-up for Schmeichel, but admits the situation is not as serious as it might have been after Hart limped away from Hull on crutches.

Hughes added: "He's likely to be out for a minimum of two weeks but when the injury first occurred we thought it was going to be substantially longer than that.

"Thankfully it's not as bad as we first thought because we did initially think it was ligament damage. That's not the case, so he will be back sooner than we feared, which is good news."

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